Ratbat (NDE)
More then any other individual, save for Emperor Dezarus himself, Ratbat is responsible for the rise of the New Decepticon Empire to power. Rather than raising armies or conquering worlds, Ratbat carefully manages the Empire’s resources and infrastructure, ensuring that they are employed in the most efficient way possible. History In the aftermath of Megaton’s disappearance, Ratbat was responsible for not only saving the Decepticons, but laying the foundations for their first empire. At this point, Cybertron was dying, its resources drained and nearing exhaustion. Ratbat, with Shockwave’s full approval, instituted a harsh regime of resource consolidation that managed to preserve the Decepticons and allow them to regroup and build up their assets to venture off-world. These programs were costly, with many sent into stasis lock or perishing from energy depletion because Ratbat’s programs saw them as being unnecessary for the race’s survival as a whole. As the Decepticons reached out across the stars, Ratbat was there to ensure that the resources harvested from their captured worlds were used efficiently. His careful guiding hand enabled the empire to continue to expand, while also creating vital supply lines that kept Cybertron alive. His actions created an intricate web of trade that made the Empire function. All of which was bought crashing down when Megatron returned. His insane schemes had little regard for logistics or the investment of resources, and instead were based on his own whim. What had taken Ratbat millennia to build was torn down by Megatron’s mania in only a few years. As the empire came crashing down, it was all that Ratbat could do to preserve what he could and redirect efforts to salvage some of the mess for the future. As the surviving Decepticon warlords fled to their new home, Dezarus took a keen interest in Ratbat and his work. The new emperor would need to build his empire up from nothing, and so he saw Ratbat as being key to making it happen. Ratbat was placed in charge of infrastructure and development, given the leeway to do whatever was needed in order to bring the empire into being. His programs saw new cities raised from the dirt and the establishment of the infrastructure that was needed to support the growing empire. As recognition for his efforts, Dezarus promoted Ratbat to the inner circle of the empire, naming him the minister for energy production. In doing so, he enshrined Ratbat’s position of complete control over all the empire’s energy resources and infrastructure, making him, in many ways, the second most powerful individual in the empire after Dezarus himself. Personality Outwardly, Ratbat is a cold, almost detached figure who is focused entirely on his task. He sees things in terms of numbers and figures; the entire Empire broken down into rows on a spreadsheet. Ratbat is driven by the idea of efficiency and getting the most value out of every resource at his disposal. This makes for an almost callous approach to his fellow sentients, where he is willing to let what he sees as being surplus assets die if it will further his efficiency targets. Ratbat is a big proponent of the Vehicon program, seeing mindless drones without individual personalities and goals as being the ideal citizen. Inwardly, however, Ratbat is a very different figure. He is a perpetual schemer and manipulator, one who seeks greater power for himself. His position as the minister for energy is a means to an end for him where he could take control of the Empire by stealth. Rather than being on the throne, he seeks to be the power behind it where he can control everything and run to his own, careful, precise plans. Capabilities Ratbat is the physically weakest of the Inner Circle’s members, however, combat is not his forte. His advanced data processing cores allow him to collect and analyse information and then synthesize the most efficient outcomes from it. Combined with his cold, logical approach, this makes him an incredibly effective planner and logistician, and has allowed him to build the Empire up twice over. He transforms into a small spacecraft, optimised for mobility over firepower. However, he is far from defenceless; in both modes he is armed with energy cannons that at least provide him with a modicum of self-defence. In robot mode, he also sports a pair of blades that he can also convert into a single sword. Finally, Ratbat has one other little known feature; he has a pair of fangs that allow him to ‘bite’ onto other mechanoids and drain them of their energy. Category:Decepticons Category:Characters Category:Males Category:New Decepticon Empire